


sweet summer dream

by queermermaids



Series: can we make this last forever? [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Trans, Background Relationships, Developing Relationship, F/F, Mentions of Transmisogyny, Non-binary character, Queer Themes, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, all of the old guard is trans in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26725783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queermermaids/pseuds/queermermaids
Summary: Her eyes were this grey blue green color that reminded Jo of storms growing. Where you can smell the rain before it falls, and it cools the summer air. Her look did the exact opposite of cooling her down though, it sent a shiver down her spine and a flush through her. It left her without words, though she knew later she could write epics about her gaze.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache & Booker | Sebastien & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf & Nicky | Nicolò & Quynh, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: can we make this last forever? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946692
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	sweet summer dream

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to write some easy, simple trans!guard fic to get myself out of a writers block
> 
> Jo and Nicky are trans women  
> Nile is agender and uses ze/hir pronouns  
> Booker is a trans man  
> Andy and Quynh are nonbinary women
> 
> They're also all younger than their canon ages, late 20s-early 30s
> 
> The additional warnings are in the end notes
> 
> Enjoy! :)

Jo loved working at Pride, makes sure she has a shift each summer. Today it's boiling hot, and she has a little battery powered fan that does nothing clipped to the top of the booth. Despite the heat, she's here and loving it. Overheated, but for everybody that walks near her booth, or to it, she still gives a broad smile and invites them to learn more about her group.

The next person who walked up to Jo's booth was a tall woman that gave her a slight smile before going on and looking at some of the zines and flyers she had laid out. Jo gave her a once over, and another one because she was absolutely beautiful.

She had medium length brown hair that ended at her shoulders, that she kept twirling her fingers in, a button up shirt with two buttons undone that gave Jo a flash of her collar and her upper chest, and cropped shorts that, she from what she could see with the table in the way, showed off her thighs and legs.

Jo wasn't a flirt no matter how much Andy complained that she was, but she was impulsive, speaking before her brain could catch up.

"Hi, I'm Jo."

The woman tucked a bit of hair behind an ear and shook her hand. "Hi Jo, I'm Nicky."

"Hi Nicky, are you new to the city, I can't say I've seen you around?"

"Yeah, I just moved here for work a couple of months ago."

"Welcome to the city, and to our humble booth! I am one of the chairs of the Queer Trans POC group here, and I'd love to invite you to one of our events this month."

"Oh, it isn't just for people of color?"

"Nope! Though it is hosted by POC and during community talks we do center voices of color, a lot of our events are casual and we welcome everyone in the community to join!"

"Here," she picked up one of the flyers and handed it to Nicky, "Sunday at 11-1pm we are hosting a brunch fundraiser for the QT youth group, all dietary restrictions accommodated for." Nicky looked hesitant. Jo internally winced.

"Or, do you like video games?" 

She looked like she was in her 20s, though Jo couldn't have known and she knows a lot of women who would take offense at the idea they play children's games. But Nicky's face lit up, and Jo high-fived herself in her head.

"I love video games!"

"I do too! What do you usually play?"

"MMORPGs mostly like Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts, though I love FPS like Sniper or COD." Jo nods, excited by Nicky's enthusiasm, translating the acronyms in her head.

"I'm not really into First Person Shooters myself, but I love Final Fantasy too. On Friday nights we play video games in the basement of the center, from 8-10pm, if you want to come?"

She hands her the other flyer, and Nicky takes it to read over. Jo hopes she doesn't look to hopeful, tries to school her face when Nicky looks up and gives her a nod.

"I wouldn't miss it." Catching her gaze while she says it.

Her eyes were this grey blue green color that reminded Jo of storms growing. Where you can smell the rain before it falls, and it cools the summer air. Her look did the exact opposite of cooling her down though, it sent a shiver down her spine and a flush through her. It left her without words, though she knew later she could write epics about her gaze. She watched star struck as Nicky put the flyers into her bag, and started to walk off.

"Wait, Nicky, here's my card. For uh, questions or anything." She slips it into her open hand, lingering to feel her hand in hers. Jo pulls away, flushing harder, and gives her a smile, before letting her go on her way to the next booths.

She leans back in the chair hard, and almost tips over before Nile comes behind her and pushes her back up.

"Who was that?" Nile asks.

"Nicky." Jo was watching her back as she walked away, not paying attention to how her voice sounded so dreamy like.

"Ooo Nicky huh? I've never seen, her?" Nile paused for Jo to correct hir on Nicky's pronouns.

"Yeah her, she had the little pronoun sticker on."

"I've never seen her around." Nile continues.

"She said she's new to town, moved for work."

"Oh! Well did you tell her about all of the things we're hosting this month, if she's got you this star struck."

"Nile."

"What? You nearly fell backwards in your chair and you're still flushed." Jo put a hand to her cheek to feel, and Nile was correct.

"It's hot out Nile!"

"Pfft, OK fine," and ze laughed, "Well did you?"

"Yeah, said she would come for video game night on Friday."

"What about video game night?"

The rest of her friends walked up to the booth. Quynh and Andy, and Booker holding a corn dog and asking her the question with his mouth full.

"Jo invited her crush to video game night."

"Nile!" She put her head in her hands. "I just met her today!"

Andy laughed and gave her some sympathetic head pats, ruffling her curls.

"Hey give me a bit," and Booker leaned his corn dog towards Nile for hir to take a bite. "Thanks babe," ze says with half of it gone in a bite.

Booker looks at the rest of his lunch dejectedly, "You should have just texted me you wanted one Nile."

Ze waves him off, "Yours tastes better. Can I have some of your drink too?" He hands it over.

"So, crush hm?" Quynh asks Jo, leaning lightly against the table, as to not have it crash down with all of her weight.

"I've just met her today, so no." Jo busies her self with organizing the table.

"Still, it's good, no? To be branching out again?"

Jo is holding one of her favorite zines, made with the other writers in QTPOC, about the intersections of queerness and being a person of color. Her portion talks about creating community, finding people with shared values, people who care for her as much as she cares for them. No more unevenness, no more unsafety, no more giving more than she was given.

She puts it back into the pile with the rest of the prints, and smiles at Quynh. "Yeah it feels good."

  
  
  


Jo spends the rest of the week fretting over Friday. She gets a confirmation text from Nicky the Wednesday before, just a quick text saying that she's coming, and that this was her. Jo puts her phone number in her contacts, before responding with _great see you then!_

They've been hosting game nights since the first night they set up all of the devices in the basement. Right on the floor, before the moving truck came with the couches and the chairs, her and Booker played Overwatch, and she kept kicking his ass. It wasn't that big of a deal, inviting Nicky into a shared community space, that held a lot of memories after 3 years.

She kept telling herself that it wasn't that big of a deal.

So she's vacuuming for like the 3rd time today, it's fine, and she's fine. But then the vacuum turns off, and she looks up to find Andy holding the cord.

"Boss."

"Jo if you clean any more you're going to bring the carpet up instead. Relax, everything is going to go fine."

She puts the vacuum away, and goes back upstairs to finish up some work, and avoid her anxiety until the event starts. She unfortunately gets too into her work, and doesn't notice the time until it's 8 going on 9pm.

Nicky comes at 8, walking down the ramp to the basement door and knocking. There were a couple of signs that pointed her towards this direction, though it was late out and she could be wrong. But the door opens up, and they let her in.

"Hi, welcome to the Queer Center, are you here for the QTPOC gaming night?"

She nods, and signs in at the person's request.

They look down at the paper, "Nicky, welcome!" They gesture to the room, where two people are already playing games, and everyone else is watching.

"Some quick names and pronouns, here's Booker", he waves and says "Hi Nicky, I use he/him pronouns." She then moves onto Nile, his significant other, who is sitting half on top of Booker and also waves. "Hey, I saw you around at pride last week, I'm Nile, I go by ze/hir pronouns."

Nicky waves back at them, feeling a little bit awkward at the rapid introductions. "Hi, Nicky, uh, she/her and nice to meet you too, and again."

"Quynh, my partner, she/they" and she gives Nicky a quick smile and waves from her position on the floor, before turning her attention back to the screen.

"And me, I own this center, and there are several groups that use the space here, but tonight it's the QTPOC gaming night, so welcome. Andy, by the way, and I use she/sir pronouns." 

Nicky blinks in surprise at sir, but doesn't say anything. Nothing until Andy smiles at her and says, "A bit of a joke, but feel free to call me sir anyway."

She gestures to the open seats in front of the TV and console set up, before returning to her chair.

Nicky sits down and watches, not fully relaxing until she gets more interested in the competition already taking place between Quynh and Andrei. She's clapping when she wins, and calling for a rematch with everyone else.

Jo walks downstairs in the middle of a game, noting Nicky sitting on the floor competing against Quynh.

She's wearing jeans with the legs cuffed, in a suit jacket and dress shirt, hair half up, looking absolutely beautiful, all of her attention on the screen. Jo hopes she doesn't distract her, because she's close to beating Quynh.

She gets distracted though, and trips over the cords while looking at her. Nothing gets pulled out thankfully, but now everyone is looking at her. Including Nicky, who gives her a smile. Bright and beautiful, and she stares back, until Nile yells. While they were looking at each other, Nicky's character fell off the map.

Quynh wins again, half of the room cheering, while Nile and Booker groan, and Andy gives her a kiss. Nicky shrugs and gives another smile to Jo, getting up to sit next to her. They spend the rest of the night watching and playing whenever the rotation switches up. Jo watching at Nicky's turn and cheering her on, Nicky telling her tips and tricks so that was she wins when it's Jo's turn.

Nicky needs a ride home because she stays late to help them clean up and misses the last train so Jo offers to drive her.

There's nothing on the radio, and so they sit for a couple of minutes in silence. Jo asks first, "So what do you do for work?

"I work in HR."

"What's that like?" and she shrugs. Jo curses herself in her head. This line of communication felt as though she was in Sims and saw the negative relationship marker above their heads. She switches it up.

"Do you enjoy the city so far?"

"Yes actually," Nicky gives her a small smile, "My apartment complex is close to the river, and it's nice to run along it."

"Nice, I live on the east side, so I miss the river."

"So why did you move out here, if you don't mind me asking." And her smile turns down, Jo sees out of the corner of her eye as she makes a turn onto the freeway. "You don't have to say if you don't want to."

"No, no I've not told anyone, might as well start now. I came out, at my old office and my boss, Merrick, was such a pig about it. An absolute dumbass too because I'm HR, so I threatened to sue. Instead of that, to keep their 'Trans Inclusive' pharmaceutical company image, I was given a bonus and a job in a satellite office, away from that motherfucker. I took it, but I don't know, I feel like I need to find another job altogether." Nicky ranted, gesturing with her hands.

"Damn, I am so sorry about that, fuck your ex boss, and fuck that whole company Nicky."

She smiled, "Thanks Jo."

"I had this shitty ex-boyfriend, who was a complete chaser and convinced me otherwise, disrespectful and just an all around bad guy. I'm glad you got out of that shitty workplace, and didn't have to stay and suffer any longer. If you want to start looking for another job, the center partners with the city's job initiative program, our liaison Copley, can help you out to find some trans inclusive, actually trans inclusive, jobs in town."

"Yeah, maybe. Thank you."

Jo, looking quickly before turning her attention back to the road, grabs her hand, and squeezes it in support. She holds Nicky's hand in hers for a beat longer, before she has to turn onto the off ramp, and needs both hands.

She drops her off right in front of her apartment complex, and Nicky kisses her on the cheek before jumping out, a blush turning her face red in the streetlamp light.

Jo sits in her car, for a long second before reality catches up to her and she touches her cheek where Nicky kissed her. Then her phone rings and she nearly drops it trying to answer.

"I'm a wimp, I'll say it right now." Nicky says when she picks up.

"Hi Nicky, um I didn't get to say anything, but would you-?"

"Yes."

"I didn't finish." but she was laughing.

"How's tomorrow night? Drinks on me?" Nicky asks, and Jo can nearly hear her own heart, beating loud. How does this woman do this her?

"Yes, yeah that sounds lovely."

She ends the phone call after setting some more plans about picking her up tomorrow. Then drums on her steering wheel and screams "YES" in her car. Her phone rings again.

"I can see you out of my window." And Jo laughs, before shifting to the passenger side window and waving up at her.

"I'll see you tomorrow, have a good night Nicky."

"Night Jo, sweet dreams."

She keeps drumming her steering wheel as she drives away with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional Warnings: The transmisogyny mentions are of workplace bigotry & harassment, and interrelationship harm, nothing is explicit, just referenced.
> 
> Leave some kudos & Let me know what y'all think in the comments!
> 
> I'm bookernile on tumblr if you have any questions/comments/concerns!! :)


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